The DOODLES, DESIGNS, and aRT of CHRISTOPHER BURDETT: Andy Christensen

Showing posts with label Andy Christensen. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Descent: Dark Elements Cover - Process

Today I am sharing the process and steps that went into a piece that I created yearly last year and was released back in April of this year, the cover illustration for Descent: Dark Elements. This assignment centered around a horrific Merroid emerging from the waters of a flooded chamber of a deep dark dungeon. This is of course something I could get behind! Here is how the final illustration turned out...

Descent: Dark Elements

12 x 12.5 - Digital

As the cover of a Descent expansion the piece needed to fit certain parameters. There needed to be a lot of bleed at the top for the type which resulted in an almost square layout. As with all of my assignments, I got started on some thumbnails. I envisioned a very dynamic scene of the Merroid splashing out of the water...

Descent: Dark Elements - Thumbnails #1

It turns out that production was looking for dynamic at all. They were looking for something more eerie and moody with the Merroid slowly rising out of the water. This meant all the thumbnails get scrapped and a new set needed to get created...

Descent: Dark Elements - Thumbnails #2

This time around I was more on target with what production was looking for. There were still a couple more notes to be addressed, but I was definitely on the right track now. Here is the updated and finalized thumbnails...

Descent: Dark Elements - Thumbnail #3

With an approved thumbnail it was time to work up the drawing. This one was really straight forward, big monster in the water... RAWR! Here is how the final drawing turned out...

Descent: Dark Elements

11 x 14 - Pencil on paper

There was one small tweak of the drawing once I was done with it, but that could be addressed in the painting process and did not require an edit to the drawing. It was time to paint! At this time I did this piece I was still working 100% digitally, though depending on the client, I most likely would approach a cover these days digitally too. But you never know. In just twelve easy steps the cover to Dark Elements comes together... or now. I know I say this a lot, but this one was really straight forward. No issues or catastrophes along the way. They happen, but not on this assignment. Here is a look at the piece coming together step by step...

Descent: Dark Elements - Progress progression

To better illustrate the painting taking shape, here is an animated progression of the process...

Descent: Dark Elements - Animated process progression

Except for the tentacle mouth rotation that was requested by production after the drawing was turned in, a stretch and squish of the background early on, and a rock that I moved the painting stays as it was originally planned. Always nice when a piece behaves itself! Here again is the finalized painting and an image of the packaging featuring the illustration for your viewing pleasure...

Descent: Dark Elements

12 x 12.5 - Digital

Descent: Dark Elements packaging

(image courtesy the FFG website)

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Monday, April 13, 2015

Descent: Dark Elements Cover

A year ago I had the opportunity to work on my first cover assignment for Fantasy Flight Games. Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, has special organized play adventures available first as in-store experiences and later available through their online store. Their organized play covers are very monster centric which allowed me the opportunity to work on one. I was tasked with portraying a menacing Merriod in a deep dark underground water filled dungeon. Here is how that Merriod turned out...

Descent: Dark Elements

12 x 12.5 - Digital

The Merriods are pretty crazy with their bitey face claw tentacles and they many rows of sharp pointy teeth, but were very fun to work on. This apparently has been out as an organized play adventure for a while now, unbeknownst to me. This adventure was made available for purchase on the FFG web store on Friday and I learned of its release. It feels like so much longer then a year since I worked on this with all that has happened artistically for me since then. Here is how the cover looks on the packaging...

Descent: Dark Elements packaging

(image courtesy the FFG website)

The menacing Merriod is currently getting some love on the FFG website. While it is not the first time, it is not often one of my pieces is so prominently featured on their site. I will take a moment to reflect on this... and then get back to work.

Dark Elements announcement on the FFG website

RAWR!

A big thanks to Andy Christensen for the opportunity to work on this assignment and for all the great art direction throughout this project. I will have a bit to share about this one when I post the process in the the coming weeks. More on this soon!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Monday, January 20, 2014

AGoT - A Hidden Agenda - Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal

When you get the email that asks if you are available to work on a project because George R. R. Martin asked for you, by name, to paint some more dragons for the A Game of Thrones card game... you make time in your schedule. This happen last January and it is still a little surreal. My schedule was also rather full at the time, but this is one of those times you make the time and you do the work. A year later I can finally talk about this weird chain of events and share the dragony results. I present you with a second pass at Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal...

Viserion - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Drogon - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Rhaegal - A Hidden Agenda
© 2014 Fantasy Flight Games

Back in 2010 I painted these three dragons for the first time for the Queen of Dragons expansion and they were very well received. If you are unfamiliar with those pieces, you can see them here: Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal. For the Queen of Dragons expansion I was given a lot of leeway to give them my own personal spin, as long as I followed the general description found in the books. Which is good since at the time I was not very familiar with the novel and world the Mr. Martin was creating. I was just wanting to make cool dragons. With my return to paint new versions of the dragons I did had approved designs I needed to stick to, but I also had several years more experience so that I could approach the dragons with a fresh pair of eyes. The dragons were to be depicted a little younger then I originally painted them, but I am not sure if that really came across. Again, really more concerned in painting cool dragons. With as much as I did to maintain the look and feel that I had with them originally, I did make sure to correct some anatomical and detail issues that bothered me about those original dragons. When I do my process post for these I will compare the originals to these new versions and talk about what and why I made changes.

Here are how the final production cards turned out and you can see how they were cropped down for production...

Viserion, Drogon, and Rhaegal in handy card form! RAWR!

The back of the card packaging features the Drogon piece very nicely, I may not be on the front of the package, but I am rocking the back of it...

Drogon is hiding out on the back of the package... RAWR!

These three new versions of the three dragons really got me thinking, and by the time the Illustration Master Class rolled around last year I still had dragons on my mind. When one of the assignments turned out to be A Game of Thrones related I took the assignment without hesitation. I really wanted to see how I would have completely redesigned the dragons if I had the chance. If you followed my posts about IMC last year you my remember how the final product turned out...

The Three Dragons

24 x 14 - acrylic on board

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Only War: Hammer Of The Emperor

Hammer Of The Emperor, the newest supplement to the Only War RPG is now out, and I have several monstrous mounts in it! Set in the grim future of the Warhammer 40K universe Only War centers around the Imperial Guard, the galaxy-spanning armies of the God-Emperor... but that doesn't mean there can't be some monsters in there. For Hammer Of The Emperor, I was asked to do a series of three drawings depicting various mounts used in war. The first one, the Aethexe, was brand new, and I got to design it! Here is how the drawings turned out...

Aethexe

Krieg Death Rider Horse

Mukaali

Sad Mukaali is sad... Here are scans from the book so that you can see how they were eventually used in the final product...

Since the final product was drawings, there is not a lot to share regarding the process for these. I can share the thumbnails and concepts that I submitted before creating the final drawing. For the first two, you will see a fourth unlabeled box. This is the thumbnail after implementing notes from my art director before I moved onto the final drawing...

Aethexe - thumbnails / concepts

Krieg Death Rider Horse - thumbnails

Mukaali - thumbnails

As mentioned time and time again, the drawing part of the process of creating monsters and illustrations is my favorite, so anytime the drawing is the finished product, I am happy with an assignment. Thanks to Andy Christensen for thinking of me for this assignment! RAWR!

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com